Dry-bulk shipping and ‘virtual water’

Navios Maritime Holdings controls a fleet of 64 dry-bulk ships, workhorses of the sea that carry commodities such as grain, soybeans and iron ore. However, during a recent presentation about its business, specifically in a section touching on the prospects for a subsidiary called Navios South American Logistics, Angeliki Frangou, Navios’ chairman and chief executive officer, noted there’s another commodity driving the dry-bulk trade. It isn’t dry. In fact, it’s water. The company said “global ‘virtual water’ imbalances will continue to be a driver of agricultural trade” and grain exports equal the virtual water trade. “Virtual water” is a concept that has been widely written about by economists...